The Dispatch wrote
Potential homebuyers take a guided tour of area properties gone bust
Monday, March 31, 2008
BY MARK FERENCHIK
Welcome to Columbus Foreclosure Bus Tours, where everybody is looking for a deal, a bargain, a steal. As one rider put it, they were going to Sam’s Club instead of Macy’s.
The tour yesterday was one more reminder of the home foreclosure crisis that continues to ensnare the region. In 2006, lenders filed for foreclosure against one of every 124 homeowners in Franklin County alone — 8,875 that year.
The tour didn’t focus on central city neighborhoods scarred by scores of vacant and abandoned homes where thieves have stripped copper pipes and other valuable materials. Instead, the bus chugged through neighborhoods in Powell, Worthington Hills, and Northwest Columbus in the Worthington and Dublin school districts.
Dawon Hawkins, a 31-year-old Downtown condominium resident, said he was surprised that most of the properties were in good shape — some in move-in condition and in attractive neighborhoods.
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